There’s one very big reason why Shepherd Hill Regional hasn’t dropped off the face of the earth since losing 10 players from last winter’s 14-8 playoff squad.

Six-foot-4 freshman Mike Rapoza has walked the hallways in Dudley for a only few months now, but the 14-year-old has become the Central Mass. version of “The Natural” since leading the Rams back to the postseason.

Rapoza has averaged 14 points per game over his last eight games, and exploded with 25 points and 16 rebounds as Shepherd Hill (9-3, 6-2 SWCL) won an 89-82 thriller over rival Tantasqua Regional on Tuesday. The win was part of the Rams’ seven-game winning streak and came in front of a booming home crowd that’s starting to catch the wave.

“Right now, I just want to win,” Rapoza said. “I’ll do anything to help the team.”

“He won the game in Grafton with four foul shots in the last 30 seconds, and he’s just a bundle of joy,” Shepherd Hill coach Duane Corriveau said. “He’s just a great kid, asking questions all the time. He wants to be in the right positions and to get to play, and he works as hard in practice as he does in the games.”

Corriveau, who coached the Wachusett boys from 1982 to ’94 and arrived at Shepherd Hill in 2008, said the only other freshman he gave minutes to was Mountaineers great Dave Bulkley, but even that was only during the stretch run. Rapoza has assumed a larger role and done so from the outset.

The offense-friendly Corriveau watched Rapoza as a middle-school player and saw the most advanced kid on the court already playing smart and within himself.

“I said, ‘Boy, if he comes in here with that kind of attitude, we’ll see,’ ” Corriveau said. “The first day of practice, I had him up with me on varsity, end of story.”

Corriveau said he inserted Rapoza into the first team three or four days into practice, but has since made him a game-changing sixth man.

Corriveau thinks that adding a hook shot would make Rapoza a complete big man, and the double-double machine has embraced the idea of playing the post.

“He’s got an awareness of the game and he’s got a great drop-step inside already,” Corriveau said. “Some people play four years and never develop that.”

Rapoza plays up a level in AAU and credits much of his development to his longtime local coach, Ryan Ford, a member of Rick Pitino’s 1987 Providence College Final Four squad that was led by current Florida coach Billy Donovan.

Of all the great scorers in Central Mass. this year, few are as vital to their team’s offense as SWCL leader Sarah Boucher, a junior at Northbridge High.

At 17.3 points per game, the wiry 5-foot-7 guard averages over 10 points more than any teammate and accounts for more than 40 percent of Northbridge’s scoring.

She already has been the focus of a box-and-one defense twice, but that might not do the trick, since Boucher is also the top ballhandler for the Rams (6-5, 6-3) and attacks the hoop in transition.

“If at all possible, we’re going to run,” said coach Matt Gauthier, who previously coached the girls’ varsity from 1998 to 2001 and is returning after spending 15 years as football coach Ken LaChapelle’s defensive coordinator.

Boucher is a deadeye free-throw shooter and needs to be. Often seeing double coverage when she gets the ball, she frequently has to finish through contact.

“She leads the fast break and probably most of her points are on fast-break layups or penetrating and attacking the basket,” said Gauthier, who estimates that Boucher takes half the team’s free throws. “She makes people pay for fouling her.”

Boucher supplements her driving ability with a sound outside shot, having hit from downtown in all but two games, including a combined five 3s in losses to No. 8 Shepherd Hill and St. Bernard’s. She reached 20 points on both occasions.

Of the Rams’ five losses, the other three — at No. 4 Quaboag, at Notre Dame and at Millbury — were tough situations on the road against quality opponents. NDA and Millbury were the teams that harassed Boucher with a box-and-one.

“It’s a different thing when you have someone just shadowing you the whole game and they don’t care about anything else, they’re not even watching where the ball is,” Gauthier said. “I’ve been telling her don’t press, we’ll make sure we set get screens, and if we can get her the ball, she’s even more dangerous because there are at least two people on her and it opens up everything else.”

Boucher has also been playing without her twin sister, Casey, who, like Sarah, is a notable local soccer player. After getting hurt last basketball season, Casey is skipping this season to focus on her college soccer future, but will likely return to the hardwood as a senior.

Northbridge has not beaten an opponent with a winning record this season, and Gauthier said it has become a point of focus to pick up a major win. The Rams’ next chance will come at 7 p.m. Monday at home against 10th-ranked Auburn High.

Contact Carl Setterlund at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports